The present invention relates to energy distribution, and more specifically, to predictive phase balancing for demand response.
As industrialized societies continue to grow in an ever-changing global economy, more and more demands are placed on natural resources (e.g., water, petroleum, minerals, air). Over-consumption of these limited resources, as well as the effects this consumption has on the environment, has understandably become an increasing concern among various individuals, businesses, and organizations which, as a result, are seeking to discover new ways to better manage and preserve them.
One example of a constrained resource is electricity. In the United States, electrical power may be produced from natural resources by a coalition of providers via power plants and then distributed over one or more grids. Alternatively, power may be produced and distributed without a grid via, e.g., independent wind farms or solar cells. As electric power cannot easily be stored, in order to meet demand, power suppliers attempt to estimate the amount of power required for current, future and near future operations; however, these estimations do not account for unforeseen events and are not very accurate.